"There is no way to guarantee in advance what pure mathematics will later find application. We can only let the process of curiosity and abstraction take place, let mathematicians obsessively take results to their logical extremes, leaving relevance far behind, and wait to see which topics turn out to be extremely useful. If not, when the challenges of the future arrive, we won’t have the right piece of seemingly pointless mathematics to hand."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Peter Rowlett, "The unplanned impact of mathematics", Nature 475, 2011, pp. 166-169.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Relevance
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Relevance
29 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Relevance →
Related Quotes
"Scientific models have all these connotations. They are representations of states, objects, and events. They are idea…"
"It seems very odd to me that content would be removed based on an individual’s personal appreciation of relevance. If…"
"We can only protect liberty by making it relevant to the modern world."
"It's much harder to be relevant than it is to be successful."
"Vertical thinking is selection by exclusion. One works within a frame of reference and throws out what is not relevan…"
"Which facts are relevant and which are not relevant to a science will be relative to the current state of development…"
"A root definition describing a notional system chosen for its relevance to what the investigator and/or people in the…"
"The attempt to politicize everything is the destruction of politics. When everything is seen as relevant to politics,…"
"Great drama, drama that may reach the alchemical level, must have dimension and its relevance will take care of itself."
"People will swear that a clairvoyant mentioned the name of their aunt from nowhere, and they will be astonished if yo…"